Basic HTML Version
the dining hall---at Big Sandy, Texas. The building was
unfinished, but we had a roof over our heads. Attendance went up
to 750. The 1954 Festival brought an attendance of around 1050.
In 1955 it went up to 1500, then in 1956 to 2100, and we were
outgrowing that original tabernacle.
The 1957 Festival saw 500 or more having to stand or sit OUT-
SIDE, with an attendance of 2750. We were desperate. WHERE WOULD
WE GO, NOW?
Then Mr. Buck Hammer brought to our attention the new type of
building construction being produced by the Behlen Manufacturing
Company. Some of us flew back to Columbus, Nebraska, to look into
it. They erected for us the first unit of the present big
tabernacle, ready for the 1958 Festival. It was then only
two-thirds as long as now. That fall there was a 45% increase.
Four thousand of God's people came. We knew that there would be
more in attendance at the 1959 Festival than even that big
tabernacle would hold.
So we had the Behlen people increase the size of the
tabernacle by 50%---making the big auditorium 373 by 121 feet. That
Festival saw an attendance of 5,500.
I am not taking time, as I rush this letter to be typed and
mailed, to check for exact figures, but as I remember it, the 1960
attendance was about 7,200. Once again we were becoming desperate!
The tabernacle was outgrown. HOW could we accommodate the expected
nine thousand plus at the 1961 Festival.
Then God opened Squaw Valley, California, to us. The 1961
Festival saw approximately 6,500 at Big Sandy, and 3,500 at Squaw
Valley---close to 10,000 total. Then 1962 brought 8,000 trying to
jam into the big tabernacle, and another 5,000 at Squaw Valley---
total around 13,000!
Once again we faced a desperate situation. We had outgrown
BOTH locations. Then God opened up Jekyll Island on the Atlantic
Coast. That was this recent Festival, 1963. Four thousand five
hundred attended at Jekyll Island, around 5,500 at Squaw Valley,
and almost 7,000 at Big Sandy. Total, just short of 17,000.
THAT BRINGS US UP TO RIGHT NOW!
Once again, we have had to face the problem of GROWING PAINS!
WHERE can we go, NOW?
Some sixty days ago we thought of a way to build the BIG BOWL
we have talked about for the last three years or so, at Big Sandy.
The idea was to span a roof over a natural BOWL depressed in the
ground, just north of the old former Highway 80. It could be done.
In fact the Behlen people now have plans drawn for a VAST, GIGANTIC
structure, covering 44 acres---yes, that's correct---FORTY-FOUR
ACRES---under one roof, without a pillar or post! It would contain
a horse race track, a football field, a baseball field, and, over
to one side, a stadium seating 78,000 beside. It would be 1,600
feet long and 1,200 feet wide. IT COULD BE DONE! Of course